Monday, March 3, 2008

If one were to observe the recent communication campaign for mobile phones, everyone is talking whether their phone has a 2, 3,4 or even a 5 megapixel camera . One wonders if it is the mobile which is being sold or the camera. A few years back most of us looked forward to the convergence era, but it has not delivered as much as it had promised. We still use our Digital Cameras for major occasions and the Mobile phone camera tends to have limited usage. But then why is that almost every major phone manufacturer is talking about the cameras, be it the Metal Series of Samsung or Nokia N82 series.....

There are a few reasons why this is happening , first would be the fact that the prices of cameras has dropped and they can be added to the phone without actually making it every expensive as it use to happen in the early days of the camera+mobile. Second is that though there is clarity at the lower end of the phone market in terms of the "value proposition" being offered - a working phone with good battery life, and a low cost, but the same is missing at the higher end, so adding a camera and other functionality is being seen as an excuse to charge higher. Among other reasons could be the "Herd Mentality" in the industry wherein everyone is just following the other and hopes that by offering a higher resolution camera would seal the deal for him.One might argue that the technology has stabilized leading to force the companies to look for differentiating points outside the basic functionality of the product. But one has to just see the developments in the FMCG products where the very scope of differentiation is limited due to the very basic nature of the products to understand the possibilities which exist in differentiation.

It is not just limited to cameras, most of the communication about mobile phones is about either the mp3 players, VGA camera and where is the basic functionality of the Mobile Phone one wonders

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If one were to observe the recent communication campaign for mobile phones, everyone is talking whether their phone has a 2, 3,4 or even a 5 megapixel camera . One wonders if it is the mobile which is being sold or the camera. A few years back most of us looked forward to the convergence era, but it has not delivered as much as it had promised. We still use our Digital Cameras for major occasions and the Mobile phone camera tends to have limited usage. But then why is that almost every major phone manufacturer is talking about the cameras, be it the Metal Series of Samsung or Nokia N82 series.....

There are a few reasons why this is happening , first would be the fact that the prices of cameras has dropped and they can be added to the phone without actually making it every expensive as it use to happen in the early days of the camera+mobile. Second is that though there is clarity at the lower end of the phone market in terms of the "value proposition" being offered - a working phone with good battery life, and a low cost, but the same is missing at the higher end, so adding a camera and other functionality is being seen as an excuse to charge higher. Among other reasons could be the "Herd Mentality" in the industry wherein everyone is just following the other and hopes that by offering a higher resolution camera would seal the deal for him.One might argue that the technology has stabilized leading to force the companies to look for differentiating points outside the basic functionality of the product. But one has to just see the developments in the FMCG products where the very scope of differentiation is limited due to the very basic nature of the products to understand the possibilities which exist in differentiation.

It is not just limited to cameras, most of the communication about mobile phones is about either the mp3 players, VGA camera and where is the basic functionality of the Mobile Phone one wonders

If one were to observe the recent communication campaign for mobile phones, everyone is talking whether their phone has a 2, 3,4 or even a 5 megapixel camera . One wonders if it is the mobile which is being sold or the camera. A few years back most of us looked forward to the convergence era, but it has not delivered as much as it had promised. We still use our Digital Cameras for major occasions and the Mobile phone camera tends to have limited usage. But then why is that almost every major phone manufacturer is talking about the cameras, be it the Metal Series of Samsung or Nokia N82 series.....

There are a few reasons why this is happening , first would be the fact that the prices of cameras has dropped and they can be added to the phone without actually making it every expensive as it use to happen in the early days of the camera+mobile. Second is that though there is clarity at the lower end of the phone market in terms of the "value proposition" being offered - a working phone with good battery life, and a low cost, but the same is missing at the higher end, so adding a camera and other functionality is being seen as an excuse to charge higher. Among other reasons could be the "Herd Mentality" in the industry wherein everyone is just following the other and hopes that by offering a higher resolution camera would seal the deal for him.One might argue that the technology has stabilized leading to force the companies to look for differentiating points outside the basic functionality of the product. But one has to just see the developments in the FMCG products where the very scope of differentiation is limited due to the very basic nature of the products to understand the possibilities which exist in differentiation.

It is not just limited to cameras, most of the communication about mobile phones is about either the mp3 players, VGA camera and where is the basic functionality of the Mobile Phone one wonders

If one were to observe the recent communication campaign for mobile phones, everyone is talking whether their phone has a 2, 3,4 or even a 5 megapixel camera . One wonders if it is the mobile which is being sold or the camera. A few years back most of us looked forward to the convergence era, but it has not delivered as much as it had promised. We still use our Digital Cameras for major occasions and the Mobile phone camera tends to have limited usage. But then why is that almost every major phone manufacturer is talking about the cameras, be it the Metal Series of Samsung or Nokia N82 series.....

There are a few reasons why this is happening , first would be the fact that the prices of cameras has dropped and they can be added to the phone without actually making it every expensive as it use to happen in the early days of the camera+mobile. Second is that though there is clarity at the lower end of the phone market in terms of the "value proposition" being offered - a working phone with good battery life, and a low cost, but the same is missing at the higher end, so adding a camera and other functionality is being seen as an excuse to charge higher. Among other reasons could be the "Herd Mentality" in the industry wherein everyone is just following the other and hopes that by offering a higher resolution camera would seal the deal for him.One might argue that the technology has stabilized leading to force the companies to look for differentiating points outside the basic functionality of the product. But one has to just see the developments in the FMCG products where the very scope of differentiation is limited due to the very basic nature of the products to understand the possibilities which exist in differentiation.

It is not just limited to cameras, most of the communication about mobile phones is about either the mp3 players, VGA camera and where is the basic functionality of the Mobile Phone one wonders

If one were to observe the recent communication campaign for mobile phones, everyone is talking whether their phone has a 2, 3,4 or even a 5 megapixel camera . One wonders if it is the mobile which is being sold or the camera. A few years back most of us looked forward to the convergence era, but it has not delivered as much as it had promised. We still use our Digital Cameras for major occasions and the Mobile phone camera tends to have limited usage. But then why is that almost every major phone manufacturer is talking about the cameras, be it the Metal Series of Samsung or Nokia N82 series.....

There are a few reasons why this is happening , first would be the fact that the prices of cameras has dropped and they can be added to the phone without actually making it every expensive as it use to happen in the early days of the camera+mobile. Second is that though there is clarity at the lower end of the phone market in terms of the "value proposition" being offered - a working phone with good battery life, and a low cost, but the same is missing at the higher end, so adding a camera and other functionality is being seen as an excuse to charge higher. Among other reasons could be the "Herd Mentality" in the industry wherein everyone is just following the other and hopes that by offering a higher resolution camera would seal the deal for him.One might argue that the technology has stabilized leading to force the companies to look for differentiating points outside the basic functionality of the product. But one has to just see the developments in the FMCG products where the very scope of differentiation is limited due to the very basic nature of the products to understand the possibilities which exist in differentiation.

It is not just limited to cameras, most of the communication about mobile phones is about either the mp3 players, VGA camera and where is the basic functionality of the Mobile Phone one wonders